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New build--Heads Exploding !

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First a little background: I haven't bought a "store" computer since 97'/ 98 ' and have built all of own since then. I've done multiple AMD builds but finally jumped on the Intel bandwagon for the last few.

All of my old parts are so antiquated/ dead/dying, that I'll have to start from scratch again.

I'm looking to build a "workstation" system around a i5-2500k. I'm not a noob to OC'g, but I'm not trying to set any records. I'm "hoping" for a 24/7 stable OC of ~4.0-4.2 at stock voltages that won't die 3 yrs down the road.

I don't game/ don't even own one, and delete games from Windows install.

Over 50% of my usage is Photoshop CS2 (need to upgrade to CS5 while I qualify for the upgrade price), maybe 15%-20% editing video w/ Vegas, and the rest watching movies or 1080p Youtube videos.

So here's my "current" list of parts:

Case: Waffling between a CM HAF 922/ 932, if I decide on the 922 I'd also get the extra side 200 mm fan.

PSU: Corsair CMPSU 750

CPU: Intel i5-2500k

Cooler: CM Hyper 212+

RAM: 2X4Gb whatever is reliable and has the lowest CAS.

MOBO: This is the one that's killing me, I've been using nothing but ASUS for the last 12-13 yrs..

Since I have no need for more than 1 GPU card, I was considering the vanilla ASUS P8p67, but it sounds like they really screwed up all of their P67 boards this time around. I hope it's nothing but a BIOS fix.

So now I'm also considering the ASrock Extreme4 as well as the Gigabyte UD3.

ASrock seems likes it coming on strong for a "mid-range" user.

Problem with the UD3 (or even the UD5) is that Gigabyte has dropped Firewire connections from their "budget" boards ! I need it for a "legacy" 4000dpi multi format film scanner ,that there is no way I can afford to replace att, so that would require picking up a PCI card.

Mouse GUI or traditional BIOS isn't really a sticking point, since I've never even seen a mouse enabled BIOS.

GPU: I'm looking at a 1 Gb 5670, whatever is best.

OD: ASUS 24X Bulk OEM multi drive

HD (s): Since the get go, I've never stuck everything on one C/ drive. At worst, I'd partition it and just keep the OS/programs on C and use D for storage.

I cant' justify the cost of a SSD right now, so I was just looking at pair of WD Black 1Tb drives, and at this point, even though they market them as "Sata III", they aren't any better than their SATA II drives.

The other thing I was considering was getting two of the WD RE4 250GB 7200 RPM 64MB cache drives and setting them up in RAID 0 for my OS and programs with a 1 TB WD Black for data.

OS: Windoz 7 64 bit




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I'd recommend against ANY RAID0 implementation. yes, it doubles your capacity, and does speed up your access, but it also doubles your chance of disk failure. And if you lose one of the HDD, then you've lost ALL of your data.


Knowing your budget would help to offer advice.

As to what you have listed, cases are a lot down to personal preference, and mine is that I am not fond of cases without dust filters, but if you are prepared to keep it clean, or in an environment where not much dust will get to the case, then do get a 932, it is a very nice case.

If you are going to use this as a "workstation" only, and will never game (by the sounds of it) drop down to a quality ~500W PSU, that is more than enough.

Good choice on CPU, it is sitting at a very nice price.

At the OC you are going for, test have shown that the stock cooler should suffice, but I too prefer an aftermarket cooler when OCing, and for your budget (looking at the CM 212+) you might want to consider the Ximatek Gaia, it is cheaper than the CM 212+ when adding shipping, and tests show it performing the same or slightly better.

Ram is currently cheap, and with your intended usage, a 8 GB kit is the way to go.

Motherboard, from all reports the BIOS upgrade should do the fix.

For a video card, I would look to a nVidia GT 240 or GTS 450, if you might see yourself using Premiere CS5 down the road as CS5 with the Mercury engine is able to take advantage of the GPU.

If you are aware of the risks involved running raid 0, then go ahead.

What I might consider with the number of disks you have, is going ahead with the 1 TB disk as OS and storage, and then the raid 0 set used for CS5 and the rest of your applications, but transfer to the 1 TB once a project is done.

buzznut said:
Strange, if you're not into gaming why the overclock? Do you really need 4.0 Ghz for CS5? I also wonder if this build is ideal for a workstation...


The resources that photoshop can use can make any game look like a joke.
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